October Sales Updates:

Dreamstime sale: George Best

 An overall OK month in October but with some moving around in the rakings.

Alamy took first place with 2 downloads (both from my political archive files). On these alone they would have made second place but a worthwhile DACS payment pushed them to the top. Personally I think it correct to include this as it comes under the "income from stock photogaphy" category.

Second place went to Redbubble with a pleasing 9 product sales. Christmas is certainly coming (and I know what some people are getting!).

Shutterstock slipped down to third place with not even a rise to Level 4 commission keeping them at the top. A distinct shortage of On Demand and good Single sales dragging them down.

Dreamstime perked up to take fourth place with 10 downloads. Certainly signs of improvement there.

Istock had another poor month with just 19 downloads and an unexciting RPD to make fifth place.

John Major - archive upload to Pond 5

  Easy to spot the problem here as my music festival images normally do well here but, sadly, life has been anything but normal this year.

Bringing up the rear in sixth place were Adobe with 3 downloads. Adobe have now opened the Illustrative Editorial category to Bronze level contributors (that's me). More on that next time.

Bigstock managed a second month with totally zero downloads. Not sure what is happening with them as despite never being a big seller I usually get a few sales each month.

Over at Pond 5, i am still awaiting my first sale but continued to upload my portfolio. I'm alternating between my old archive editorials and modern day travel images. I now have just short of 1000 images with them. At Set your own Price and 50% commission I'm happy to take a long view on this site.

Lidl - Illustrative Editorial now open at Abobe

I didn't upload anything much too my regular sites during October as I concentrated on uploading to Pond 5 though I continued to use this to fill gaps in at Picfair and, where suitable, to my POD sites.

More next month which I hope and expect to get posted earlier as I am upping the time allocated to photography...... Regards, David.

 

May Sales Updates:

Protestor climbing a comms mast in Barcelona

A steady month in May with  no major surprises or dramas.

The usual top of the tree placing went to Shutterstock though a decreased number of On Demand downloads pulled the dollars down here.

Making a welcome return into second place were Alamy with 2 downloads. One fairly modest one and one substantial one. These were both from my B/W archive collection from the 80s/90s. I now have approaching 2.5k images there and still have some older digital images to upload.

Istock took third place with 40 downloads. They would have been second but for the Alamy sales and are still, in general, my second best site for sales and income.

Redbubble came in fourth place with 3 product sales (bag, T shirt, poster). One of the things I really like about Redbubble is they pay out any cleared earnings on a monthly basis - no waiting to hit a fixed payout level like with most microstock sites. Equally, it's one of the things I don't like about Redbubble because I never get to a substantial amount (I'm sure some do!). It might be nice to have the option of letting it build up a bit.

Fifth place went to Dreamstime with 7 downloads. There are certainly more signs of life at DT these

Lidl supermarket, retail success in the UK

days and the bad old days of rejecting similar images are long gone.

Bigstock came in sixth place with 9 downloads. The ever popular Tenterden food and Drink festival images still continuing to sell here. May saw the second year of this event so I have some fresh images ready and waiting.

Seventh place saw the (leaving when I get payout) 123rf with a paltry 4 downloads. Just four dollars left to payout now. Except for April when the Stephen Hawking effect kicked in, 123 have delivered exactly 4 downloads every month this year!

Finally in eight place we have (still waiting for editorial) Fotolia with a single download. In common with most other sites FT seem to be rejecting little these days so my portfolio is gradually growing there - but still only about 200 images.

Medieval Crusader castle on Halki island, Greece

As well as covering the food and drink festival in May I also took a series of my local Lidl supermarket. Retailing (and in particular food retailing) are big ongoing media stories in the UK so I plan to start adding more storefront type images to my portfolio. I also shot my local Esso petrol station (it's next door to Lidl so silly to miss it). One of the interesting (for me) by products of stock photography is the amount of (sometimes useless) knowledge you pick up when researching for caption information. Esso, it turns out, is an acronym for Eastern States Standard Oil. Who knew? Not me that's for sure.

Other uploading in May included more shots of my April trip to Barcelona including the dramatic moment when a protestor climbed a communications tower to unfurl a banner. He was cheered and clapped by the thousands in the Placa Espanya below. Another series uploaded was of the medieval Crusader Knights castle on the Greek island of Halki. Regards, David.